From Noah Ebije,
Kaduna
Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, (MACBAN), has accused the Federal Government of complicity in the activities of killer herdsmen ravaging the country.
MACBAN said the porous nature of Nigerian borders was responsible for the free entry and exit of the killer herdsmen who he alleged to be foreigners.
Addressing a press conference at the Correspondent Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, (NUJ) in Kaduna yesterday, MACBAN Assistant National Secretary General, Ibrahim Abdullahi said: “In Nigeria, our borders are porous, people come in anytime and go out anytime they want. In fact, it is a shameful thing today that we don’t even know those that are indigenous Fulani or the migratory Fulani.
“We don’t know and that is why people mix things up, you begin to suspect the Fulani man that you grew up with when anything happens. He has not traveled far where did he get the AK 47?”
Continuing, Abdullahi said: “It is either Nigeria opts out of the ECOWAS Protocol or we should apply the conditions. We should ensure that before anybody comes into the country, we know when he will come, where he is go and control what he will come in with.
“Another problem we have is that people don’t know is that these trans-human Fulani that come into the country with all forms of weapons, oftentimes they come in with less than 50 cattle, but when going back they go with thousands of cattle rustled from our own Fulani here. So our economy is also affected.
“One other issue we need to know again is that some of the countries that Fulani herdsmen come from in Africa have crisis. For instance, in Chad or Central African Republic, there is rebellion. Weapons have become like pure water or bread, so people from there see it as a normal thing to move about with AK47.
“So it is left for the government to do the right thing. Let us decide who comes in because it is our country; let us decide the terms for the person coming. We should not because of ECOWAS Protocol leave everything to fate; that is not going to help us. The truth is that that when you go to your village today you will see Fulani that have been there since, apart from the knife and the stick that they have and maybe Dane gun for hunting they don’t have AK 47. The truth is that these people coming from other countries we have to control them.”